Minorities in American Society (SYD 3700) Concepts, Themes, History, and Theories Healy Text

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1 1 Minorities in American Society (SYD 3700) Concepts, Themes, History, and Theories Healy Text Chapter 1: What is a minority group? Inequality --Most important defining characteristic of minority groups. --Traits or characteristics Shared social status provides the basis for strong intragroup bonds and a sense of solidarity Ascribed Status Marriage Patterns The Pattern of Inequality and the intersections of Race, Class, and Gender. Theories of Inequality Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Gerhard Lenski Minority group status affects access to wealth and income, prestige, and power. Although social classes and minority groups are correlated, they are separate social realities. Race is a social construction, not a biologically meaningful characteristic. Struggles over property, wealth, prestige, and power lie at the heart of every dominant-minority relationship. Distinction between Prejudice and Discrimination thought and action. Race and racism as ideologies. Individual level prejudice and discrimination, and group level racism and institutional discrimination reinforce each other.

2 2 Chapter 2: Assimilation and Pluralism Assimilation Theory: As a society undergoes assimilation, differences among groups begin to decrease. Pluralism, on the other hand, exists when groups maintain their individual identities. In some ways, assimilation and pluralism are contrary processes, but they are not mutually exclusive. Melting pot a process in which different groups come together and contribute in roughly equal amounts to create a common culture and a new, unique society. Americanization or Anglo-conformity Robert Park and Race Relations Cycle: Contact Competition Accommodation Assimilation Milton Gordon, Assimilation in American Life --Differentiated between: *Culture *Social Structure Human Capital Theory Ethclass: The intersection of the religious/ethnic and social class boundaries. Evidence that full assimilation has not materialized, even among European ethnic groups

3 3 Chapter 3: Prejudice and Discrimination in the Individual Prejudice is the tendency of individuals to think and feel in negative ways about members of other groups. Discrimination is actual, overt individual behavior. Although prejudice and discrimination are related, they do not always occur together. Two dimensions to prejudice: The affective dimension refers to the feelings, generally negative, that we associate with other groups. The cognitive dimension of prejudice refers to the ways we think about other groups. Sometimes we explain behavior by attributing actions to personality traits or internal dispositions. At other times, we may see behavior as a response to a particular situation or to external factors. Theories of Prejudice: The scapegoat hypothesis links prejudice to the individual s need to deal with frustration and express aggression. The authoritarian personality states that certain kinds of people require prejudice to function effectively. Perhaps the most important limitation of personality-based theories is that they tend to focus on the individual in isolation and do not take sufficient account of the social setting or the context and history of group relations (Brown, 1995, pp ). Culture-Based Approaches to Prejudice: View individual prejudice as the predictable result of growing up in a society that incorporates racist ideology, extreme racial and ethnic inequalities, and systems of exploitation based on group membership. Myrdal s Vicious Cycle Culture, racial or ethnic inequality, and the development of individual prejudice can reinforce each other over time. Limitations of Culture-Based Approaches: No two people have the same socialization experiences or develop exactly the same prejudices.

4 4 Power Conflict Theories: An expansion of Marxist analysis, which argues that ideologies and belief systems are shaped to support the dominance of the elites numerous situations in which prejudice was used to help sustain the control of elite classes. Limitations of Power-Conflict Theories: Individuals who have no material stake in minority group subordination can still be extremely prejudiced. Chapter 4: Societal Trends in Prejudice and Discrimination The overall trend is unmistakable: There has been a dramatic decline in support for prejudiced statements since World War II. Of course, polls also show that prejudice has not vanished. Efforts to Reduce Prejudice and Discrimination: Equal status contact hypothesis Modern Racism: A number of scholars reject the idea that prejudice in the United States has declined and argue that it is simply changing forms. Modern racism tends to blame the victim and place the responsibility for change and improvements on the minority groups, not on the larger society. Hate Crime: A Resurgence of Prejudice? One possibility that fuels these phenomena is supplied by perceived threats, frustration, fear, anger, and scapegoating. If it is true that these phenomena are motivated by feelings of insecurity, what will happen as the U.S. economy continues to downsize and automate? Chapter 5: The Development of Dominant-Minority Relations in Pre industrial America: The Origins of Slavery

5 5 As explained by Gerhard Lenski, the subsistence technology of a society acts as a foundation, shaping and affecting every other aspect of the social structure, including minority group relations. Contact Situation The Origins of Slavery in America The position of African indentured servants in the colonies remained ambiguous for several decades. By the 1750s, slavery had been clearly defined in law and in custom, and the idea that a person could own another person not just the labor or the energy or the work of a person, but the actual person had been thoroughly institutionalized. The colonists came to see slaves imported from Africa as the most logical, cost-effective way to solve their shortage of labor. The Noel Hypothesis The Blauner Hypothesis Colonized minority groups Immigrant minority groups Enclave and middle-man minorities Paternalistic Relations As the institution of slavery developed, a distinct African American experience accumulated and traditions of resistance and accommodation developed side by side. The Dimensions of Minority Group Status The Creation of Minority Status for Native Americans The Creation of Minority Status for Mexican Americans When Comparing Minority Groups Chapter 6: Industrialization and Dominant-Minority Relations

6 6 From Slavery to Segregation and the Coming of Postindustrial Society Dominant-minority group relations change as the subsistence technology changes. In the early 1800s, American society began to experience the effects of the industrial revolution, or the shift from agrarian technology to machine-based, manufacturing technology. This shift in subsistence technology was marked by a decline in the manufacturing sector of the economy and a decrease in the supply of blue-collar, manual labor jobs. Industrialization and the Shift from Paternalistic to Rigid Competitive Group Relations As competition increases, the threatened members of the dominant group become defensive and hostile attacks on minority groups tend to increase. The Impact of Industrialization on African Americans: From Slavery to Segregation When slavery was abolished, black-white relations in the South entered a new era when the Civil War ended in April of Reconstruction proved too brief to overcome two centuries of poverty, illiteracy, and powerlessness. The system of race relations that replaced slavery in the South was de jure segregation, or Jim Crow. White workers took advantage of the new jobs brought by industrialization, while black southerners remained a rural peasantry, excluded from participation in this process of modernization. The system of legally mandated racial privilege was approved by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that it was constitutional for states to require separate facilities for African Americans as long as the separate facilities were fully equal. The Great African American Migration: White ethnic groups responded by developing defensive strategies to limit the dangers presented by these southern migrants. With the increased freedom that followed slavery, a national black leadership developed and founded organizations. Industrialization, the Shift to Postindustrial Society, and Dominant-Minority Group Relations: General Trends From Rural to Urbanization The split U.S. labor market

7 7 Modern institutional discrimination is a more subtle but still powerful form of discrimination. Chapter 7: African Americans: From Segregation to Modern Institutional Discrimination and Modern Racism At the dawn of the 20th century, African Americans were a southern rural peasantry, victimized by segregation de jure, enmeshed in the sharecropping system of agriculture, and blocked from the better-paying industrial and manufacturing jobs in urban areas. The End of De Jure Segregation WWII and the African American community Brown vs Board of Education Topeka, 1954 The Civil Rights Movement Origin The successes of the protest movement combined with changing public opinion and the legal principles established by the Supreme Court coalesced in the mid-1960s to stimulate the passage of two laws that, together, ended Jim Crow segregation. Civil Rights Act of 1964 Voting Rights Act of 1965 Factors that facilitated the success of the Civil Rights movement The Black Power Movement Black-White Relations since the 1960s No area of race relations is more volatile and controversial than the relationship between the black community and the criminal justice system. Numerous examples of excessive force Racial profiling is an ongoing debate One of the livelier debates in contemporary race relations concerns the relative importance of race and class in shaping the lives of African Americans and other minority groups. William Julius Wilson and the debate over the declining significance of race The clarity of Jim Crow has yielded to the ambiguity of modern institutional discrimination and the continuing legacy of past discrimination in the present.

8 8 Today, the extent of residential segregation varies around the nation, but blacks continue to be the most isolated of minority groups, especially in the older industrial cities of the Northeast and Midwest (Pollard & O Hare, 1999, p. 29). The situation of African American jobs and income has improved since the end of de jure segregation but has stopped well short of equality. Interracial contact in the more public areas of society is certainly more common today, which has led to increases in more intimate contacts across racial lines. Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full? Perhaps the most reasonable approach is to recognize that in many ways, the overall picture of racial progress is different rather than better and that a large percentage of the African American population has traded rural peasantry for urban poverty and faces an array of formidable and deep-rooted problems. Chapter 8 American Indians: From Conquest to Tribal Survival in Postindustrial Society At the dawn of the 20th century, American Indians were a conquered and colonized minority group. At the dawn of the 21st century, American Indians remain among the most disadvantaged, poorest, and most isolated of minority groups. American Indian Cultures Relations with the Federal Government after the 1890s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Acculturation or forced Americanization The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934 The Indian Reservation System Termination Policy Protest and Resistance The American Indian Movement (AIM) The Continuing Struggle for Development in Contemporary American Indian-White Relations

9 9 Economics, Employment, Gaming, Education, Poverty Rates Contemporary American Indian-White Relations Recent increases in the American Indian population are partly due to higher birth rates, changing definitions of race in the larger society, and a much greater willingness of people to claim Indian ancestry (Thornton, 2001, p. 137). Chapter 9 Hispanic Americans: Colonization, Immigration, and Ethnic Enclaves Colonized or Immigrant Minority Group? Diversity by Ethnicity and Race MEXICAN AMERICANS Mexican immigrants enter a social system in which a colonized status for the group had already been established. Throughout much of the 20th century, Mexican Americans have been limited to the less desirable, low-wage jobs, and split labor markets have been common. Protest and Resistance Movements and Organizations The 1960s Chicano movement Unlike immigrants from Europe, Mexican Americans tended to work and live in rural areas distant from and marginal to the urban centers of industrialization and opportunities for education, skill development, and upward mobility. The flow of immigration kept Mexican culture and the Spanish language alive. PUERTO RICANS Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States after the defeat of Spain in the Spanish- American War of Economics, employment, migration Puerto Ricans arrived in the cities of the Northeast long after the great wave of European immigrants and several decades after African Americans began migrating from the South. Puerto Ricans share many problems with other urban minority groups of color: poverty, failing educational systems, and crime.

10 10 CUBAN AMERICANS The contact period for Cuban Americans dates back to the Spanish-American War. The impact of the Cuban Castro Revolution on migration from the island to the U.S. The development of a Cuban American minority group bears little resemblance to the experience of either Chicanos or Puerto Ricans. First waves of migrants versus Marielitos. Cuban Americans rank higher than other Latino groups on a number of dimensions, a reflection of the educational and economic resources they brought with them from Cuba and the favorable reception they enjoyed from the United States (Portes, 1990, p. 169). Contemporary Hispanic-White Relations The level of Latino prejudice has declined, but prejudice and racism against Latinos tend to increase during times of high immigration. Cultural differences reflect the recency of immigration. Chapter 10 Are Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans Model Minorities? Diversity: Asian American and Pacific Islander groups differ from each other in language, customs and culture, physical characteristics, and in their experiences in the United States. What were the push and pull factors for migration? Contact Situation and the Development of the Chinese American Community The Chinese came to be seen as a threat, and elements of the dominant group tried to limit competition. Chinese Exclusion Act Split labor market Gender patterns of migration The ethnic enclaves

11 11 The contact situation for Japanese immigrants resembled that of the Chinese. Experiences and demographic shifts of successive generations within the Asian immigrant experience. The internment camps and why they happened. Recent demographic trends in Asian American profile. Asian Americans have also been the victims of positive stereotypes model minority. Contemporary Relations The ability of Asian Americans to pursue their group interests has been sharply limited by a number of factors. What are these? Like Cuban Americans, Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans used their traditional cultures and patterns of social life to create and build their own subcommunities from which they launched the next generation. Chapter 11 New Americans: Immigration and Assimilation The United States is now experiencing a second wave of immigration, beginning in the 1960s and including people not just from Europe but from all over the world. Immigrant demographics as a consequence of the 1965 Immigration Act. Profiles of Recent Immigration from Latin America, South America, and the Caribbean Dominicans are possibly the most impoverished immigrant group. Haitian immigration Economic versus political refugee immigration. Contemporary Immigration from Asia and the Pacific Islands The Vietnam War and its impact on Asian immigration. Arab Americans The huge majority of the members of the Arab community denounce and reject terrorism and violence, but, like Columbians and Italians, they are victimized by a strong stereotype.

12 12 Immigrants from Africa There appear to be three main modes of incorporation for immigrants in the United States: Primary labor markets Secondary labor markets Ethnic enclaves Immigration: Issues and Controversies Douglas Massey argues that there are three crucial differences between the European assimilation experience of the past and the contemporary period that call the traditional perspective into question. The flow of immigration from Europe to the U.S. slowed to a mere trickle after the 1920s due to restrictive legislation, the depression of the 1930s, and World War II. The speed and ease of modern transportation and communication will help to maintain cultural and linguistic diversity. Contemporary immigrants face an economy and a labor market that are vastly different from those faced by European immigrants of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Chapter 12 White Ethnic Groups: Assimilation and Identity The Twilight of Ethnicity? Peak periods of European immigration Demographic profiles of Western European versus Eastern and Southern European immigrants. Even the groups that were the most despised and rejected in earlier years are acculturated, integrated, and thoroughly intermarried. The Jewish American enclave survived because of the cohesiveness of the group. A continued barrier for Jewish Americans is anti-semitism. Ethnic succession refers to the myriad ways in which European ethnic groups unintentionally affected each other s position in the social class structure, with each European immigrant group tending to be pushed to higher social class levels by the groups that arrived after them. Changes in the economy and occupational structure shaped the social class position and speed of integration of European immigrants and their descendants (structural mobility). Today, white ethnic identity is often described as symbolic ethnicity (Gans, 1979; Lieberson & Waters, 1988).